Various types of devices have been employed to assist people who are recovering from various types of injuries and surgery, or who are experiencing weakness or instability from conditions associated with advanced age or other causes, in moving to and from a seated position. Complicated and expensive devices such as tilting chairs and the like have been developed for such purposes. Various types of four-legged walkers and devices designed to be supported by a chair or bed have also been used for this purpose.
Developers in the field have given attention to the problem and various cane and cane-like devices are disclosed in a number of patent or patent-related documents. British patent application No. GB2136290A to Walker; U.S. Pat. No. 3,289,685 to Parker; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,562,850 to Early et al. disclose devices with a plurality of handles and a cane-like structure. Also, U.S. Pat. No. 1,400,394 to Warry discloses a telescoping crutch-like device with a single shaft in which an auxiliary handle may be gripped when the crutch is fully extended.
The device of Walker has four handles at the top of the device and the lower handles may be gripped by a person seated for the purpose of pulling on the handles with the device in a front position in pulling oneself into a standing condition. The upper and lower handles of the Walker device are located close to one another and the device is such that it has two pair of handles located at two different levels of the cane.
The device of Parker has two handles, but the handles are not located with their geometric centers above the shaft member. The principal use of the two handles of the Parker cane is for stability when a user is traversing uneven terrain. The upper and lower handles of Parker are relatively close together, e.g., about six inches. Thus, as one attempts to use these canes, the pressure of the handles will cause some rotational force upon the wrist of the user when trying to rise from a seated position. Since many users have arthritic conditions, torque on the wrist is disadvantageous and generally to be avoided. Furthermore, the handles of the Parker device are sufficiently close together that one using such a cane, especially alongside a chair, would experience an uncomfortable position for the wrist, hand, and forearm because of the limited space available between the handles. Again, as with the Walker device, the more comfortable and biomechanically advantageous position in which to use a cane for uprisal purposes is alongside a chair and close to one's center of gravity when seated. The close proximity of the two handles of Parker does not readily permit this type of convenient use of the device.
The device of Early has a collar close to the handle of the cane. The collar provides a small surface for a person to try to pull on in order to pull oneself into a standing position. The collar, however, is positioned too close to the handle to be used effectively in a pushing-down motion.
Another patent disclosing a supplementary handle is U.S. Pat. No. 4,121,605 to Schmerl which has a long stabilizing bar pivoted in close proximity to the cane handle and the bar may be rotated to a substantially perpendicular position with respect to the cane shaft. A second hand may be placed along the stabilizing bar when a user of the cane has his or her other hand on the cane handle in a standing position. This bar is also located close to the main cane handle and therefore disadvantageous in assisting a person rising from a chair.
Other structures, such as that illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,941,495 to Boyce et al. have also been developed to provide uprisal aid. This device has a pair of arm-rests which are laterally spaced a sufficient distance to encompass the hips of a user. These armrests provide hand support for a person rising from a seated to a standing position.
In addition to the development of canes as walking assist devices and uprisal assist devices, other walking assist devices have been developed with multiple leg members to provide stabilized support for the user during walking. Such devices include walkers which typically have four spaced apart legs as, for example, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,442,276 to Edwards, et al. The user advances the walker ahead of himself or herself the distance of an arm length, and then leans upon the walker as he or she walks forward toward the walker.
Walker devices have been disclosed in the patent literature which also provide assistance in uprisal from a sitting position. U.S. Pat. No. 4,474,202 to Blechner discloses a walker having two, spaced apart foot rests upon which the user places his or her feet while grasping a forward bar to pull himself or herself up to a standing position. The use of the footrests requires specific positioning that can be awkward to use and therefore unsafe.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,347,666 to Kippes discloses an uprisal device having extended horizontal rods at ground level to counterbalance the user's pull on a front bar of the device. The Kippes device also discloses the need for having a second person, in a standing position, to serve as an anchor on the front part of the device to aid the user in uprisal. The Kippes structure serves only as an uprisal device and not as a walking-assist device.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,941,496 to Berning discloses a walking assist device having two legs and two sets of spaced apart grips to assist the user in rising from a seated position or in climbing stairs. The two vertically spaced grips of the Berning device are spaced so closely together, however, that the device cannot be used effectively as an uprisal-assist device. In addition, the Berning device is inherently unstable because of its substantially elongated vertical profile.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,005,599 and 5,445,174, both to Cunningham, disclose walker devices which have attached, articulating brace members that swing outwardly from the walker frame to be positionable over the horizontal surface of a chair or other seating structure. The extended braces are designed to be grasped by the user to assist in rising from a seated position. Such braces, however, are laterally unstable by virtue of their rotatable attachment to the walker frame. The Cunningham devices also require a stable surface upon which the braces are supported during uprisal. Therefore, such devices are disadvantageous as uprisal assist devices.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,785,070 to Block et al. discloses a walker which has, in addition to the handles for use while standing or walking, a second set of handholds for use in assisting a person in rising from and lowering to a seated position. The second set of handholds of the Block walker, like the handholds of other conventional walkers, provides stability to a user by virtue of being positioned in front of the longitudinal axis formed through the ground engaging tips and the rear legs. As a result of this positioning, however, the second set of handholds is disadvantageously located distant from a seated user.
The walking assist devices previously described provide varying proficiency in assisting a person wishing to rise from a seated position, but each has its own disadvantages relating principally to the instability of the device and/or the ease of use. By their designs, the support handles of these devices that are intended for assisting the user in uprisal are either unstable or positioned inconveniently to a person in a seated position behind the walker. Thus, it would be advantageous to provide a combined walking-assist and uprisal-assist device which is both stable and configured to provide conveniently located handholds to readily assist a user in both rising from and lowering to a seated position.